Barack Obama Would Be an American Citizen Even if Born in Kenya, So Why Does the Media Keep Fanning the Story?

08/25/2012 09:27 pm ET
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Updated
Oct 25, 2012

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Michael Russnow
Screenwriter; former member, WGAW Board of Directors; former U.S. Senate aide

All this nonsense about Barack Obama's citizenship, recently alluded to by Mitt Romney, who lamely insisted it was a joke, should have long ago been dismissed as untrue.

Not because he was born in Honolulu, which records submitted by Mr. Obama through long and short-form birth certificates and the assessment of Hawaii officials verify.

But even if he were born in Kenya (which I don't believe to be the case) the president still would have been a U.S. citizen at birth, because his mother was an American, a fact which nobody to this date denies.

No less than the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website indicates the ground rules for eligibility for children born out of the country. At this link, and on the third entry it clearly states in the case "that One parent is a U.S. citizen at the time of birth and the birthdate is before November 14, 1986 but after October 10, 1952" that a child born out of the U.S. is a citizen.

Even if the child is born out of wedlock, if the mother is a U.S. citizen her citizenship carries to the child, who, assuming everyone was living abroad, had until the age of 21 to decide whether to keep his/her citizenship. In the case of Obama, he was living in the states at the age, not in Kenya or Indonesia, the latter of which country he actually he resided in as a small child, due to his mother's second marriage.

Other instances of kids being born out of the country, whose citizenship was discussed and later affirmed, include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., who was born at the family summer home at Campobello in Canada. Also, John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone. George Romney (Mitt's father), born in Mexico of missionary U.S. parents. Even Princess Grace's children were said to be entitled to American citizenship, which they might choose by the age of 23. In the newspaper article, it indicates

that in January, 1957 the State Department ruled that Grace Kelly's baby will be an American citizen. A department spokesman said United States law is explicit on the citizenship of a child born to an American citizen abroad.

So, this nonsense should stop, and it's amazing that the media on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and CNN's Anderson Cooper has not heretofore picked up on this fact, regardless of where Obama was born, instead continuing to fan interest in the story, while purporting to discount the virtues of its veracity.

The sad thing is that there are a sizable number, albeit in the minority, who believe Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen (and probably a Muslim), and in a close election the more ammo aimed at debunking this false point of view might influence fringe voters egged on by those such as Donald Trump to cast their selection based on their valid political points of view rather than a crazy, crackpot fairy tale.